VATICAN CITY--Pope
John Paul II said Saturday that it is immoral to withdraw food and water from
people considered to be in vegetative states.

The pontiff spoke on the subject during a conference concerning the
ethical dilemmas surrounding people who are considered legally incapacitated
because of severe brain injuries. He said that even the terminology,
"persistent vegetative state", was degrading, because a person is never a
"vegetable" or "animal".

Providing food and water is not artificial medical intervention, the
pope said, but is natural, ordinary and appropriate for any person, regardless
of how disabled or ill.

Since no one knows when a person in such a state might awaken, "the
evaluation of the probability, founded on scarce hope of recovery after the
vegetative state has lasted for more than a year, cannot ethically justify the
abandonment or the interruption of minimal care for the patient, including food
and water," he said.

"If this is knowingly and deliberately carried out, this would result in
a true euthanasia by omission," he told the audience.

The conference was organized by the World Federation of Catholic Medical
Associations and the Pontifical Academy for Life.

According to various news sources, John Paul added that families of
people such as Terri Schiavo need more economic and emotional support.

Terri, who lives in Tampa, Florida, has been in what some doctors
consider a persistent vegetative state since she collapsed and her brain was
without oxygen in February 1990. She breathes and regulates her heart and blood
pressure on her own, but receives food and water through a gastronomy tube
installed through the wall of her stomach. Her husband successfully petitioned
the courts to have Terri's feeding tube removed last October. He said his wife
told him she would not have wanted to live in her condition.

Terri's parents have fought to keep their daughter alive, claiming that
she is aware of her surroundings and responds to them. They enlisted the help
of Governor Jeb Bush, who championed a law through the legislature giving him
the authority to have Terri's feeding tube reinstalled six days after it had
been removed.

The law is being challenged by Terri's husband, who claims the governor
violated her right to privacy, along with Florida's constitutional separation
of powers.